Paul Klotman, MD, president, chief executive officer, and executive dean of the Baylor College of Medicine, testified at a May 17 joint hearing of the House VA Subcommittee on Health and Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations titled “VA Research: Focusing on Funding, Findings, and Partnerships.” In his testimony, Dr. Klotman highlighted the benefits, value, and innovations that result from VA research collaborations with medical schools as well as academic affiliations broadly.

The AAMC May 15 sent a letter thanking Rep. David Rouzer (R-N.C.) for his amendment seeking to provide the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) more flexibility in the timing of on-site inspections of universities under the Animal Welfare Act (AWA). Specifically, Rep. Rouzer introduced an amendment to H.R. 2, the Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018, that would modify the provision for on-site inspections under AWA to occur at least once every three years, rather than annually, for those university research programs subject to the Act.

National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins, M.D, Ph.D., accompanied by the directors of five NIH institutes, May 18 testified before the Senate Labor-HHS-Education (L-HHS) Appropriations Subcommittee regarding the agency’s fiscal year (FY) 2019 budget proposal. This follows a previous hearing before the House L-HHS Committee in April [see Washington Highlights, April 13].

The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) Advisory Council and the Cures Acceleration Network (CAN) Review Board May 10 held a joint meeting at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) campus in Bethesda, MD. At the meeting, the Council approved the following four concept clearances: CTSA Collaborative Projects Program; Synthetic Technologies for Advancement of Research and Therapeutics (START); Non-PDMS Biocompatible Alternatives for Organs-on-Chips; and Universal Medium/Blood Mimetic for Use in Integrated Organs-on-Chips.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) May 9 issued its fiscal year (FY) 2018 stipend levels for trainees receiving Ruth L Kirschstein National Research Service Awards (NRSAs). NIH will increase NRSA stipends by approximately two percent on average across stipend levels for undergraduate students, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Predoctoral yearly stipends have increased to $24,324, and stipends for seven postdoctoral fellow career levels start at $48,432 for the first year and increase to $59,736 at seven years. Amounts for tuition remain unchanged, but the training related expenses and institutional allowance for postdoctoral fellows are increased by $1000 each.

The AAMC May 16 submitted a letter along with the Association of American Universities (AAU), Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), and Council on Governmental Relations (COGR) to the Department of Health and Human Services in response to a request for comments on the April 20, 2018 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to delay the general compliance date for the revised Common Rule to January 21, 2019 [see Washington Highlights, April 20, 2018].

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) May 6 opened national enrollment for its All of Us Research Program, which aims to gather data from one million or more people to accelerate research and improve health.

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Board of Governors met April 30 to approve $74 million in funding for nine research projectson comparative effectiveness research (CER) topics, as well as $20 million to support four studies that will use PCORnet, the National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) May 1 published a Request for Information (RFI) seeking the research community and the public’s input on federal technology transfer policies and practices.

Testimony and Correspondence

The AAMC wrote a letter of support to Rep. David Rouzer of North Carolina in response to his amendment to H.R. 2, which would update the frequency of required inspections under the Animal Welfare Act (AWA).